The app growth story has been staggering. With growth of mobile internet usage which has surpassed desktop usage now, there have been a realisation for every enterprise, big or small that APP can be a suitable medium of market growth and increased user engagement and retention. APP provide an edge to businesses that are able to provide the user with a dependable, user friendly and trendy APP. But most of the apps in the market are of average kind that missed some critical functionality. Here is a list of some functionality in apps that are must have for a good user experience regardless of verticals in which the enterprise is operating in.

Feedback options

Getting your users to report your app and to give important feedbacks about usability, some bugs or even criticise the APP is important so that those issues can be streamlined and dealt with. Some apps have a button for this, some have email links. Still some have reporting functionalities whenever there is issues with the app. All these inputs will enable you to build a better APP.

Customisation options

Those apps work best which allows users to customise the apps in some way to match their preference. It can be changing the skin of the app, reorganising the menus, supporting som unique features for the device on which it is installed. Apps should also allow to have greater control on the privacy settings and font sizes. This goes a long way on app retention rate as the user can feel some sort of control on the app usability.

Single Common Source

Having a once source for your app is often the best way to develop great and inexpensive apps. This can be achieved by porting the app to each target platform (Like IOS, Android, browser) native development environment. Thus, there are unique version for IoS Android and Windows. Also, the app ecosystem should be adaptable to varying screen sizes and responsive ness with one source.

Do away with Multiple Clicks

There is some tendency with app developers to introduce as many steps as possible to get more and more information from users. This could be asking them to fill forms, registration or signups. In doing so they forget that all these different screens need clicks and they invariably lead to more dropouts. Hence there is a golden rule to eliminate as much click as possible and ask for only that information that is truly relevant.

Social Login

It has been proven that most of the users on mobile are always logged into some social media accounts like Facebook. Allowing your app to be logged into with social media account is a great experience in terms of usability and has been seen to up the app retention rate. Together with this a robust email notification for log in details is also critical.

Responsiveness

There are so many types of mobile phone in different sizes that it is next to impossible to define all the screen sizes on which the app will be accessible. Hence the best way for an app to fit all screens is to make it responsive wherein the app can detect the screen size & adjust its dimension proportionally to varying screens. Same layout of the app is then used across all screens. Creating the app from a single code base is very critical.

Allow for Updates

Instead of pushing updates from your side, good apps also allow updates when a use request which can be done to upgrade to latest versions or to fix bugs and improved features. Allow the updates to be done easily to all version and platforms.

Offline Operation

Though not suggested for all APP categories, it is quite a trend among big apps to allow the user to operate the app even when there is no internet connection (You tube being an example). It gives a huge plus point to an app.

Speed and Unnecessary File Request

Apps work in different types of internet speed and it is very critical to test the app for slowest internet capability and every effort should be made to enable app to work faster. Also too many file request makes the app heavy and slow as well as burn your battery faster ( eg: Facebook Messenger) which make many user to uninstall your app.

Analytics

Integrate this features right at the time you are making the APP. This would enable you to easily track user behaviour which becomes critical when the app usage grows. Also it would give feedback about updates to app. The focus would be tracking user experience.

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Posted by ved

Ved Prakash is the Co-founder of InstaDigit.com, a premier online marketing agency based out of Bangalore. He heads the Online marketing team that caters to Integrated Digital Marketing solutions, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click, Social Media Marketing, Web Design & Development services. He can be contacted at - 8147901887

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InstaDigit is founded by set of people who are passionate about Digital marketing. We love all aspects of Digital footprint whether it be organic search, optimising your paid campaigns, unravelling your social media engagement journey, a ROI oriented affiliate marketing program or Mobile & Content marketing. We are a leading performance based Digital marketing agency which people love to trust as they onboard ed the growth journey with us.